Metal Mouth Message Board

Dear JCDAMON3,

I posted a few days ago about my teeth being crooked in the top front and you said your teeth were similar. Do you have any pics? I'm just curious. Also, did you have any extractions? Why is it going to take so long? Thanks in advance,

Gracie

(PS hope the Damon isn't for Johnny Damon! I am a Red Sox fan! Ha ha)

HI Gracie,

Gosh I feel so special! A post subject with my handle! I looked up your post so I could remember what it said.

Actually damon3 is really just about the type of bracket that I have. Here is a reference to the site that advertises these brackets:

http://www.damonbraces.com/

Well here is the deal about posting a picture now. I have been in braces 9 months and what you are going to see it straight teeth with some wear in the center, bottom of my two upper front teeth which makes it look like I have an arch. The way this happened is that my teeth were slanted inward (basically the opposite of an overjet). I grind my teeth so my upper teeth became the shape of my lower teeth. My top teeth really didn't take very long to straighten out at all. In fact they have a few little adjustments and they are good to go. It is my bottom teeth that were really crowded and are taking longer. The hold up seemed to be a tooth in the bottom front that was rotated so much they couldn't get a bracket on it.

I don't have any before pictures, which is what you probably really want to see. I am very sorry I don't have any pictures for you. I may try to get some up this weekend though so stay tuned.

Anyway my teeth were slanted in on top and even when I wasn't grinding my teeth, when I bit down, the bottom front teeth would hit behind the top teeth and it made it so that my back teeth did not meet correctly.

I should not be in braces that long. I really think at this point it will be only 18 months. I am kind of one of these folks that alot of people were like, "why did you get braces? You didn't need them", which can be pretty frustrating because when I smiled you saw relatively straight teeth on top, but my bite was a disaster.

When I get my braces off, at that time, I have to make the decision about whether or not I think the wear is bad enough to put bonding there. We'll see!

My advice to all is if you grind, find a mouthguard that works for you. I refused to wear mine and the result was really not good.

Stay tuned I will try to post a pic this weekend of the current state.

I'd love to see the pictures! And I'm happy the results are good! I am looking forward to getting my teeth straightened. I would imagine it would make me feel a lot more confidence when I smile. I will try to post a picture as well so you can see my "before", lol.

Gracie

Well, here goes nothing. Here are my teeth. It makes me really sad that I waited so long to do something.

You can see the powerchains in this pictures. I guess that is the trouble with some of these pictures - you see stuff that no one else would ever notice. I even see a tiny hair there. Ewww!!!

As you can see I will probably need some bonding on the two front top teeth. There is a black triangle there that you can't see so once he sorts that out the wear may not be as noticeable. It is then that I will have to make a decision. I am just afraid fixing that will make other issues more obvious. As you can see I also have black triangles on the bottom, however those teeth are not straight yet and the one in the middle has actually gone away since the last adjustment. I ask the ortho about gum recession and he said - no my gums are not receeding.

You can see that alot of leveling still has to happen with my lower teeth. Hopefully once they are leveled he will shave a bit off the center. This was the cause of the upper teeth getting messed up. Urgh!

Gosh I should have put some lip gloss on!

OK, the powerchain is the same as with traditional braces...thanks for posting! You're doing great--I'm sure the end result will be lovely...the leveling will do wonders.

Vonster

Hi, thanks for sending the pics! I saw them once and didn't have time to reply. For some reason I can't see them anymore! Oh well. I have a consultation tomorrow. I am excited but nervous about starting this whole thing!

Thanks again.
Gracie

Oh Great! I am glad you got to see them. I took all my pictures and references to them down as I get paranoid sometimes about privacy.